Spongy Brakes - need some advice
 

hey I was wondering if you guys could help me out with something. If ya have been following my build ya know I just finished all my mods on my brakes:
New DBA rotors / new Hawk HPS pads / ATE Super blue fluid and Goodridge SS lines. I bled the brakes in the prescribed manner and everything seem to bleed well. When I drove it to seat the pads they felt a little spongy. Definitely not as stiff as stock. I took them to the dealer and they bled them again and they still feel spongy. I think something is wrong....like an air bubble or something in the master cylinder. I find myself pumping the pedal twice all the time now to get them to "firm" up. Pedal doesn't fade and the brakes work good...but the pedal is spongy and drops way more than it used to. What do you guys think is up? I gotta think that after 2k in brakes upgrades that the pedal should feel better than OEM not worse. Feeling very frustrated....:banghead:

I sort of had a simallar issue with my brakes the other day. I had new studs pressed in and they had to remove my rotors and calipers in order to do so. After driving my breaks were super spongey but after driving for a day and bringing it back to the shop it's back to normal again. They said after taking everything off, it takes a little while to build that pressure back up in the whole system. You should be all good in no time if you are not already. :)

^^Say what???

So in other words the shop bled the system again?

Depending where the air bubble is, it's possible it worked itself up top.

To the OP, did you let the reservoir run completely dry at any time? If so, it's possible you need to have the abs unit bled, and/or the master too.

^^Nope the shop Didnt touch em at all. It def could have been an air bubble that got in and worked its way up though. But my brakes are all back to normal now.

Just my. 02¢ But on my SS Truck... just changed them out 2 weeks ago... pulled to a store just yesterday and both my ABS & BRAKE light came on... I'm going WTH!?!? Brakes were fine... tight and couldn't figure it out... my dad came by this morning lifted it bled the whole system and the rears gurgled up Air in the line... Master Cylinder was full... My Dad said when you compress to fast while pushing the Cylinders back to install new brakes puts air in the line... so he said to slowly compress them back and done... checked the ABS line no issues the Air pockets were in both rears...

I know its not a G.... but after 45/50 years of knowledge he's 70 I'm 41 he knew the problem...

But my Truck is Back to norm....

How do you bleed the ABS unit and or the master? do I have to take it to the shop to do this? I am willing to try anything to get the old firm pedal back.

so i'm a fairly experienced non-pro mechanic, recently bled my brakes and afterwards had spongy brakes, with one or two pumps they would get firm again. I bled them again, this time in the order prescribed in fsm. Still spongy. Then I happened to see a comment in the forum about each caliper having an inside and outside bleed screw!!!! i was bleeding with just the outside screw, didn't think to look on inside side of caliper. never heard of such a thing but sure enough it was true. Thought I'd try one last time to get the air out and yep that did it, now they're firm as when new.

inside /outside
 

yeah I did insides first which is what is recommended. I also did it the correct wheel orientation even though Riverside Infiniti mechanic says they do not do it that way. they do closet wheel to the master cylinder first than alternate.

I am going to try and flush the entire system and go back to Motul. The brakes work fine....but the pedal definitely feels better if I pump it once.
I checked and there is an adjustment on the pedal....might try that as well.

brake update
 

well..I was sort of hoping for more feedback from the group of experts here! :)
From what I can gather....the consensus is that I probably have some air in the lines or MC somewhere. I am going to go ahead and replace all of the fluid again. I am going with Motul RBF 600 this time. The shop I am taking my ride to to get the springs installed is supposedly a great brake shop as well. Hopefully when they get done with my baby...she will be sitting lower, feel better with the new Whiteline sways and hopefully my spongy brake pedal will be gone.

oh...hey can some give me an idea what I should pay to get the springs and sway bars installed? I want to make sure I am getting a fair price. Shop said 550 to do springs, sway bars and flush the brakes. That also includes a 4 wheel alignment.

That price sounds OK, although the Springs & sways aren't a hard DIY job IME. Does that include installing camber/toe kits too? As long as they've got a good reputation and deal w/ aligning lowered cars on a regular basis it's not a bad deal, about 2-2.5 hrs labor (not including alignment) and if they have to elongate the toe slots that's another 1/2 hour and another 1/2 hour to install the F&R camber arms.

springs
 

does not include camber kits....the guy at Swift that I called said they recommend just installing then go for an alignment and see what is needed. He said over 75% of the cars can be aligned without extra kits....but I know here in the forums everyone says they end up needing them. Hopefully I might get away with just rears...the full kit is like 500....ouch! Figured I would wait and see and only buy what I need. This mod cycle has really set me back some!
The shop works on a ton of hot rods and local American muscle. They specialize in modified cars for both street and off road and the have a good reputation. It will be my first experience with them. The shop owner said if I need camber kits he can get me a good deal....they deal in SPC as well and had a ton of parts there.
I was going to try and DIY, but I don't have all the tools...and since it will need alignment anyway...I figured I would go ahead and pay a shop. That way...if its wrong I can take it back. Did my brakes myself and now I am stuck wondering why they are not right! :mad:

You've done so many mods I forgot that you were going w/ Swift, hopefully your alignment guy can get it in spec or close enough to avoid the extra parts. Sounds like a good shop that should know what they're doing, and hopefully they'll find the issue w/ your brakes.
BTW, saw your other post about auto detailing, I'll have to hit you up for some help w/ holograms. Since I got the G back from the body shop I had to wait 90 days before doing any of my own detail work and there are holograms from their final polish. I've done buff compounding & polishing before on my G but it sure wouldn't hurt to hear what works for you, especially since I'm dealing w/ fresh paint. I'll shoot you a PM so I won't further sidetrack this thread.

drop me a pm and we can discuss chemicals and procedures....if you are 90 days out on the new paint...you are probably ok to work on them holograms.......but they are for sure fixable.

You have to bleed your brakes, end of story.

At any point did your mc/brake fluid reaevoir go dry? If it did you need to bench bleed the mc or use one of those vacuum brake bleeding tools to get all the air out of the system. Good luck!